So I just got a very nice Cisco E4200 wireless router and did all the setup with the CD. It was very easy. I turned on all the security stuff have a nice long password.

This was the afternoon.

Just a few minutes ago, my lovely (non techy) roommate connected his visiting girlfriend's computer to the network. Somehow he managed to erase the one I made and set up his own with a different name. Anyway, not sure what happened. I did a bit of panicked fixing and we are back online.

Thankfully the down time was short enough that my mind wasn't too clouded by the internet withdraw.

However, I have now punished my roommates to the guest connection until further notice. So how to I resolve this apparently basic issue? There are a lot of fancy options on the menu. Can I grant my MAC address admin and block everyone else out? Is there some other password I need to set?

My knowledge of networking is slim, having always lived within managed systems previously.

Well, there's probably a reset button on the router you can use to clear the config if you've forgotten the password. Short of locking the router in a room that only you have the key to, there isn't much you can do about that. The security on a consumer wireless router is not designed to defend against someone who has physical access to the router... nor *should* it be.

It appeared to be only a name change, with the password preserved. I'm not sure how that worked. There is a reset button, I did push it, and it did not change it back as far as I could tell. There was also an update for the router so I ran that in the process.

I think i'll just set up their computers individually and not physically give them the password this time. Guest have to use the Guest account!

Just to be sure I understand correctly, what got changed? The network name (SSID) in the router? There should not be a way to do that without knowing the router password (or resetting the router config).

Usually the reset button needs to be held in for several seconds and/or held in while power cycling the router to reset the config. This prevents it from happening accidentally.

The SSID was most certainly changed, and to my knowledge they didn't touch the router. Is there a way to have a password to change setting on the router that is separate from the password that allows people to connect to the router? Is that a router specific question?

As far as I can tell there are two "sides" of the system. The all in side that has the SSID and a password, which I set the first time. Then there is the guest side were you have to logon each time.

There are router-specific variations but in this respect I believe all consumer routers work in essentially the same fashion

rogthewookiee wrote:

The SSID was most certainly changed, and to my knowledge they didn't touch the router. Is there a way to have a password to change setting on the router that is separate from the password that allows people to connect to the router?

Yes. When you connect to the router's administrative interface via http://192.168.1.1 you should be prompted for a user name and password. Since this is a Linksys router, the default will be admin for both. This is the administrative password, and no one else needs to know it. The first thing you should do is change it to something else (in the Administrative Management section of the UI), but it is entirely separate (and should be different) from the passphrase you set up for WPA2 security in the wireless section of the interface (which is, in turn, different from the password you might set up for Guest access). Only you need to know the Admin password you have set (and as a further precaution, you can set the admin interface to only be available via wired connection, so that no one can even access the administrative interface via WiFi). Other users of the network only need to know the WPA2 passphrase, or if you just want to give them guest access, the guest passphrase.

Edit: I just looked at the manual. Logging into the router is on page 6, which directs you to changing the admin password on page 41; while you are there you can also disable access (to the admin interface) via wireless. Setting passwords for network access is on 14 and guest access is on 18.

It's possible you used their setup software, which may have called these things something different or otherwise confused the issue, but you can still log into the router directly and do this.